Save Plumpton Terrace-From Liverpool City Council.

Along Everton Road.

There is a tall grand terrace. 

A long brick structure, a row with its principles of Georgian design almost intact. 

With remnents of its doorway fanlight faded glory. It stands there tall in defiance.

I will not be moved it says to me, in the autumn sunshine.

 I will not fall down, no matter what you do. 

Built 1824. there are a few alterations and a bit of work could be put right.

Generally I hate mock Georgian. The proportions don't work because the ceiling heights are usually reduced. This is the real thing. 

Looking smaller than its three storeys in pictures, than its true scale. 

It stands there as if it has been left behind and in another timezone.

Liverpool in the 1980's.

You could almost put its faded elegance to a UB40 soundtrack and without too much effort, imagine what it was like in the late seventies in post war decline Liverpool, managed decline. Thatcher decline. 

When the mantra was to manage that decline because Liverpool was dying in front of our eyes.

I saw it in spray can graffiti before grafitti became fashionable.

“Will the last person to leave Liverpool switch off the lights'.

It was a distress call. A pleading. 

Vandalism in protest.

I know because I have done it too.

Declaring that Lady Doreen and Sir Trevor Jones in my opinion were “Partners in Slime”.

The terrace plus the adjoining row which are in good order were mentioned in 'Buildings of Liverpool'...saying they were needing attention.

That book was published by Liverpool City Council in 1978.

Just how can this be allowed to happen to such an imposing row of beautiful proportioned dwellings?

It is owned by Liverpool City Council, thats how.

A labour council who behave like Tories. 

Where Mayor Joe Anderson and his Head of Regeneration were arrested, alledgedly as partners in slime. 

They and the council were probably waiting for it to get in a worst state so they can do us all a favour.

 And knock it out to one of the “Cosy” developers that they fed with our land, that we the citizens of Liverpool own.

Plumpton Terrace was alive when I was young.

Everton Road leads into St Domingo Road and thats where I was born in Wye Street almost next to Everton Library that is still standing.

Just about.

It may receive some attention soon.

Or is that another empty Liverpool heritage promise?

Across the road is the beautiful and historic Grade I listed St Georges Church. 

Which was my church of St Georges infant school, where we were led to pray before I discovered the untruths contained within religion. 

I walk through its gatepost entrance, that I once climbed and clung to, and threw confetti over my neighbour in celebration as he walked through it, beneath me with his bride, on his marriage day.

It is easy for you to imagine yourself in the countryside.

At the top of Beacon lane.

St Georges platau has always been an important place.

Feel the craftsman cut 18^th century script in the historic stones, that all tell a story, in the graveyard and you can feel the history through your fingertips

I got quite emotional there today. Maybe I was remembering sitting inside looking up at the majesty of its architecture when as a six year old, not knowing that this was a Rickman design but knowing that it was special. 

Or maybe it was recalling my mothers funeral service that was held there recently. I dont know, but I do know that the sense of place that I still feel to this area is within my soul.

There is a bit of, a new, mad looking Acadamy heading back to Plumpton Terrace. The place where as a child I once went to the Red Triangle club. That was a long time before the Kung Fu fighting Bruce Lee craze took hold. 

This is where another neighbour of mines brother, Steve, older than me, trained. He went to compete at the Olympics. The Red Triangle has trained some good people. 

And kept many young Liverpudlians off the street. Maybe gave them some pride.

This area has had its ups and downs and most of it is on the up.

We need to Save Plumpton Terrace-From Liverpool City Council.

While there are fortunes going into new build shoe boxes, we need to respect the past, where we come from.

This building, or buildings need to be saved.

So what could it be, well as I remember those dark Boys from the Blackstuff days.

I can also remember how I felt proud to have a certiificate, a City and Guilds certificate. That showed that I had trained as a proper apprentice. 

That I had served my time, not inside, where poverty wants to grab you and take you down to.

But as a carpenter. “You will never be out of work” I was told.

Now Liverpool needs more trademen. Good lads and now ladies, who will feel the same pride as I did.

Like the mythical plasterer written into Alan Bleasdales script who signed his name on the corner of his wall because he was so proud of his work. 

Yes I remember him too.

Everton needs to rekindle its pride and look after its youth and give it hope and a new future.

Plumpton Terrace could just be the place to do that.

Save Plumpton Terrace-From Liverpool City Council who have let it decline and will let it fall down.

If we let them. They Are Guilty  

Liverpool The City That Knocked The Cavern Down And Then Called Itself Beatles Town.

SAVE EVERTON LIBRARY TOO

Living In Liverpool Its too hard to bear sometimes

Liverpool The City That Knocked The Cavern Club Down, Then Called Itself Beatles Town.

I was born just off St Domingo Road in Everton, though it was nearer to the hallowed turf of Anfield. 

The proximity to Anfield is what provided me with my pocket money.

 I would mind cars on match day.

 It was great running up and down the street “Can I mind your car Sir”.

I would put my Liverpool scarf on early in the morning and we would have a little bit of territory in our cobbled street with which to work.

People were kind.

 It was a friendly gesture rewarded for the effort and enthusiasm. 

The drivers in would get out in their red and white scarves. They didn't have to give you a few coppers but I think it heightened match day for them.

There would be no cars in our street of a normal day. There wasn't anybody living there whose income could afford to run one.

 It showed you that if you tried a bit and were pleasant, you could earn a little bit. Which in turn made your life a bit better.

 Mainly in the ability to buy football cards that you could collect into an album. I can still remember the team goalkeeper was Tommy Lawrence, right up to Peter Thompson on the left wing. The beginning of collecting, maybe.

It was a friendly place, we knew everyone in the street. I still today can recall most of our neighbours names.

 The surrounding streets were pockmarked with missing houses that had been bombed during the war looking like missing teeth within a pretty girls smile. Other houses were shored up with timber.

We played war games amongst the debris and in the abandoned houses with broken window pains.

Around a similar time I was once showed how to throw a brick at a church window by an older lad.

 It was covered in a grill and made a great noise. I hadn't realised why my so called mentor was running away, until a white collared clergyman came out from a side door running towards me shaking his first. I learnt how to run that day. 

And how to keep away from this tearaway who fell about in stitches laughing.

I didn't think it funny at all especially when a knock on the door came and there he was reporting me to my mother. You grow up quick in the school of hard knocks.

The church was two streets away, the other side of Sir Thomas White Gardens which was quickly becoming a failed experiment into social housing. Its no longer there. Either is the church that became our playground. I used to run errands having made friends with the people inside. 

I never picked up a stone in anger again and soon realized why the beautiful glass windows were covered up.

At that time in Liverpool there was a different mentality, Protestants and Catholics were enemies, or so we were taught. 

We played football matches when we found someone with a ball. The teams were usually picked by religion. I thought whats all this about.

I soon grew up and realized, just as I had been shown to throw a stone, that I was not to listen to my elders, not to be guided by the wrong people.

To form my own judgments by study.

Decades later whilst driving past, I found the same church in disrepair and about to be demolished so I removed some of the fittings before the bulldozers destroyed them and put them in my stores to re use. Then shortly after, while reading Freddy O'Conners “It All Came Tumbling Down” I found a picture of my street, and a picture of a church that was designed by Pugin, well the firm of E.W Pugin. I was a property developer by this time. I then realized that there were several Pugin buildings in the vicinity and I also realized I had felt the gravity of the history in the humble little street that was condemned by the city council as a slum and we were sent to a modern house in the suburbs.

I always regretted the move. The wash house, that steamy place where the washer women gathered to chit chat away was in fact a Pugin building.

If you are born poor you dont know anything else.

My first BBC appearance was for a documentary about slum housing and I was nominated for interview by the headmaster of my school St Georges. 

I recall in my past memory that I was talking about growing up and there and some shots walking home from school with my friend.

I must have only been six years of age. We did not have a TV and had to go to a neighbours house to watch it. I have tried to find it in the BBC archives but I fear its lost.

 It showed a happy little child growing up and attending a school with its Grade I listed St Georges church, walking home through Everton Library, also a listed building that had escaped the blitz.

https://waynecolquhoun.blogspot.com/search?q=st+georges I wrote about St Georges some time ago.

Not long after being cleared out to the new Metro-land. A concrete jungle. I missed the sturdy security of my poor working class background and the way the people stood together and helped each other. 

People who had nothing would share their last bit of food with you, not knowing if there would be any money with which to buy more for themselves.

 Boot boys and football hooliganism appeared. Things rather dramatically in the coming years. When I started going the match it had become a dangerous place.

Now I understand that that church was in fact The Chancel Chapel erected to be the beginning of the building of a new Cathedral of such gigantic proportions that it would rival St Peters in Rome. The Church never got the necessary finances required and after war decimated Liverpool a free site was given to the Catholic Church near the city centre. This would see The new Metropolitan Cathedral Of Christ The King, or Paddy's Wigwam built. 

I was an apprentice watching this new space rocket erupt on the plateau opposite the Anglican Cathedral by Giles Gilbert Scott. I did not like it.

Later I got angry with what was happening to my city and how it's historical buildings were being targeted for redevelopment in the new era that was bringing a new prosperity...with little respect for my past.

I had become a vociferous heritage campaigner as Liverpool became a World Heritage City it began to destroy the Pier Head. 

The famous Three Graces had escaped The Luftwaffe and then the city planners set about destroying the majesty of Liverpool's waterfront.

Now I was negotiating with Unesco to save its soul as we watched the corrupt city council planners destroying my city that I had been so proud of, yes proud, even with all its tatty edges and incongruities,

It was my town. And they were knocking it down.

I would be as vocal as I could with some great success I gained a respect for my opinions and believed I could shape the argument of how to keep what was the essence of the city yet bring it into the modern times.

This is the city that knocked The Cavern down and then called itself Beatles Town.

Liverpool became European Capital of Culture and some argued that the only culture they could find was in the yougurt, in the fridge, in the Kwik Save, in Old Swan.

They built without respect, on and on, higher and higher, the World Heritage Site was becoming a architectural mess.

https://waynecolquhoun.blogspot.com/2019/06/liverpool-threatened-with-world.html I tried to inform the public. What happens if the econony shifts? I said.

I would be asked my opinion many times.

 One request was to the merit of The Metropolitan Cathedral by the Editor of the Liverpool Daily Post where I was careful not to throw stones at it, but give it a conseintious view built up by years of experience, questioning.

The lack of knowledge in the city for its heritage assets was apparent, especially that of the Editor of both the Daily Post Mark Thomas and the Liverpool Echo which had sunk to an all time low under Alaistair Machray.

It was in the Lutyens Crypt within the Metropolitan Cathedral that I made my Antiques Roadshow debut where I was invited to become a specialist on the longest running factual programme in the history of the BBC. https://waynecolquhoun.blogspot.com/2014/09/antiques-roadshow-what-amazing.html This was the programme I had loved since discovering it one Sunday night a long time ago. Those stories those objects, It lit up my life like a beacon.

Hopefuly I was invited to become part of the show because I understand the meaning of how important the past is to our future.

How we need history, the stories and meanings of the past.

How we use objects as a vessel to discover who we are.

And more importantly how to objectively look at everything without believing what you are told. To question and not be ordered how to think.

I believe that lad who taught me how to throw a brick made me think, and I formed the opinion that we should never trust in those who appear to be in a superior position.

And now I own a 19^th century Grade II listed slate built Chapel where I will open my new gallery soon. I spent the summer restoring it and phase one is nearly completed and I realize that those who live in ecclesiastical buildings should not throw stones, yes I have learnt a lot.....................oops, I have just realized I started off writing about the designer architect who brought Gothic architecture back to the fore and in doing so changed forever the shape of our cities. Augustus Northmore Welby Pugin.

I will now have make that my next post I got a bit carried away there.

http://waynecolquhoun.blogspot.com/2020/07/augustus-welby-northmore-pugin-his.html

Liverpool Threatened With World Heritage Site Status Deletion. Again.

How many times can Liverpool get away with bluffing Unesco.
Last year there were frantic negotiations between Unesco and UK officials at DCMS to save Liverpool's deletion from The World Heritage register.

After the UK Government gave assurances to The United Nations it was decided that Liverpool would not be deleted, pending strict criteria that had to be met.

http://waynecolquhoun.blogspot.com/2017/06/liverpools-world-heritage-site-status.html

Previous years had seen Unesco requesting a moratorium of new high rise developments in response to growing concern that the Liverpool planning authority were out of control and were not able to monitor developments in a manner appropriate for a city with World Heritage Site Status. Lime Street/Skelhorne Street developments were of particular concern.

Just look at the mediocrity that has been built. 

For over a decade now Liverpool has been running the Unesco deletion gauntlet. Dodging the bullet, its leaders acting like naughty schoolboys pretending they don't understand whats going on, promising they will uphold World Heritage principles.

All this whilst the Mayor of Liverpool was declaring publicly that World Heritage site Status is just a badge on the wall at the Town Hall.

This is the crude past of Liverpool rearing its ugly head yet again.

The lack of class within this city is the reason Liverpool was put on the World Heritage “At Risk” register, at the very same year that Aleppo and The Temple of Palmyra (That was subsequently destroyed by The Taliban).

The relentless push for development by Labour led council seems a throwback to an era that has blighted Liverpool's past.

I grew up in the Derek Hatton era.

My favourite bar was Kirklands, people come from all over the country to this trendy establishment housed in a Grade II listed old bakery. Look what they have done to it surrounded by …....student flats. A quick look round the corner shows how it also blights St Andrews Church Grade I listed that we fought to save despite the Council selling it to a convicted fraudster.

And look at what they have done to Lime Street. It is an architectural anachronism, made worse by the fact that each end of this monstrous carbuncle there are Grade II listed buildings. And all this adjacent the Historic Listed Lime street Station and St Georges Hall.

Lets not mention, oh alright we will, The Blind School opposite The Philharmonic Hall on Hardman Street.

It is with the deepest regret that I say, reluctantly that my city has been butchered to the state that its beautiful and historic listed structures now look alien in their own environment. The city can not face this relentless roller coaster of glass shoe boxes in the World Heritage Site.

Why does this current Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson want us to lose World Heritage Site Status?

He dodges the criticism through his £95,000 a year press agent who is there to assist his public persona. But Mayor, Joe Anderson has to take the blame for the mess that is Liverpool's architectural blight.

At this very moment in time with a World Heritage Committee meeting taking place in BAKU on 30^th June 2019, there are no signs or a whisper of this International event that effects the city of Liverpool, from Liverpool City Council.

Hardly surprising that UNESCO have now made recommendations to delete Liverpool from the World Heritage list on 2020 after all the promises made to them by the UK government have cumulated in nothing but a smoke screen for dodgy developments led by The Mayoral Investment Fund.

Liverpool were given a lifeline after promising a new tall buildings policy.

Unesco have been requesting a DSoCR (Desired State of Conservation Report) since 2005.

A Desired State of Conservation Report for the removal of the property from the “At Risk” Register was urgently requested by The Unesco World Heritage Centre for Europe in 2011.

It now appears that, after years of bluff and bravado by Liverpool City Council, Unesco have not received satisfactory documentation to believe that Liverpool and the UK Government are taking the matter seriously.

At one stage The DCMS who are ultimately responsible for all UK World Heritage Sites stated that they are powerless in the wake of the relentless push and lack of overall monitoring of Liverpools Planning Authority.

Unesco have stated quite clearly that Everton FC's proposed Stadium at Bramley Moore Dock is against the previous World Heritage Committee decisions for further developments.

Unesco state “ It is regrettable that the consultation process did not adequately address potential impact on the OUV of the property, nor alternative locations and the public were not informed about the potential negative consequences”

To put it in context Joe Anderson, an Everton supporter is pulling the wool over the publics eyes in favour of his friends at Peel Holdings.

Joe Anderson was elected on a ticket that declared the creation of 20,000 jobs within The proposed Liverpool Waters development.

Eight years later not a single brick has been laid.

Lets see what Unesco think.

I, and my heritage colleagues have spent 15 years warning consecutive council leaders of the threat to losing World Heritage Site Status.

Whilst understanding the need to regenerate we have tried to advise that the OUV or put it more clearly the aesthetic values of this great city were being eroded by the monotonous desire to build vertical blocks of student flats that will become tenements of the future.

Last year it was declared that Liverpool had escaped deletion from the list.

This news was distorted into a good news story. Maybe it was.

But it is only prolonging the eventual in my opinion.

It has broken my heart watching my cherished views be despoiled by inappropriate urban development that is no more than civic vandalism sanctioned by a local authority, led by no more than Spivs.

And even now the news of Liverpool's proposed deletion from The World Heritage List is being suppressed.

Ms Isabelle Anatolle-Gabriel from Unesco even made a visit to the city in 2017 to address the threat to the public direct.

The world news that will be created by this devious intention to fluff the pockets of a few council friendly developers will have ramifications for every citizen of the city of Liverpool.

Liverpool World Heritage site status that Joe Anderson described as no more than a badge on the wall, at the Town Hall, will have to be replaced, by a badge of shame.

UNESCO STATE.

https://whc.unesco.org/en/soc/3881 Read more by clicking the link.

Factors affecting the property identified in previous reports

• Governance: Lack of overall management of new developments
• High impact research/monitoring activities: Lack of analysis and description of the townscape characteristics relevant to the Outstanding Universal Value of the property and important views related to the property and its buffer zone
• Legal framework: Lack of established maximum heights for new developments along the waterfront and for the backdrops of the World Heritage property
• Social/cultural uses of heritage 
• Buildings and development: Commercial development, housing, interpretative and visitor facilities
• Lack of adequate management system/management plan

It is plain that we are up for deletion from the World Heritage List in June 2020.

This time we may not escape. Read the Unesco Draft Decision below.

It is clear that Liverpool City Council have no intention, or are capable of being able uphold World Heritage principles.

Draft Decision: 43 COM 7A.47

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined
2. Document WHC/19/43.COM/7A,
3. Recalling Decision 36 COM 7B.93, 37 COM 7A.35, 38 COM 7A.19, 39 COM 7A.43, 40 COM 7A.31, 41 COM 7A.22 and 42 COM 7A.7 adopted at its 36th (Saint Petersburg, 2012), 37th (Phnom Penh, 2013), 38th (Doha, 2014), 39th (Bonn, 2015), 40th (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016), 41st (Krakow, 2017) and 42nd (Manama, 2018) sessions respectively;
4. Acknowledges the increasing engagement of civil society in the care of the property and its World Heritage status;
5. Recalls its repeated serious concerns over the impact of the proposed Liverpool Waters developments in the form presented in the approved Outline Planning Consent (2013-2042) which constitutes an ascertained threat in conformity with paragraph 179 of the Operational Guidelines;
6. Although noting that the State Party has submitted an updated and revised draft Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR), notesthat comprehensive assessment of the proposed DSOCR by the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies is still not feasible, as the approval of the DSOCR relies on the content of additional documents, which are yet to be prepared or finalized, including the Local Plan, the revised Supplementary Planning Document, the majority of the Neighbourhood Masterplans, and the Tall Building (skyline) Policy;
7. Reiterates that the submission of a further draft of the DSOCR by the State Party and its adoption by the Committee should come prior to the finalization and approval of the necessary planning tools and regulatory framework and regrets that the alternative proposal of the Committee, expressed in Decision 42 COM 7A.7, for substantive commitments to limitation on the quantity, location and size of allowable built form, has not been followed;
8. Although also noting that Peel Holdings (Liverpool Waters developer) reiterated its confirmation to Liverpool City Council (LCC) that there is no likelihood of the Liverpool Waters development scheme coming forward in the same form of the Outline Planning Consent, strongly requests the commitment of the State Party that the approved Outline Planning Consent (2013-2042) will not be implemented by Peel Holdings or other developers, and its revised version will not propose interventions that will impact adversely on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property, including its authenticity and integrity;
9. Expresses its extreme concern that the State Party has not complied with the Committee’s request to adopt a moratorium for new buildings within the property and its buffer zone, until the Local Plan, the revised Supplementary Planning Document, the Neighbourhood Masterplans, and the Tall Building (skyline) Policy are reviewed and endorsed by the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies, and the DSOCR is completely finalized and adopted by the World Heritage Committee, and urges the State Party to comply with this request;
10. Also regrets that the submission of Princes Dock Masterplan and changes to the Liverpool Water scheme to the World Heritage Centre took place after their adoption by the LCC, and expresses its utmost concernthat these documents are putting forward plans, which does not ensure the adequate mitigation of the potential threats for which the property was inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger;
11. Also reiterates its consideration that the recent planning permissions issued for the Liverpool Waters scheme and elsewhere within the property and its buffer zone, and the stated inability of the State Party to control further developments, clearly reflect inadequate governance systems and planning mechanisms that will not allow the State Party to comply with Committee Decisions and will result in ascertained threat on the OUV of the property;
12. Finally requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2020, an updated report on the state of conservation of the property and on the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 44^th session in 2020, as well as a DSOCR and corrective measures that could be considered for adoption by the Committee;
13. Decides to retain Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) on the List of World Heritage in Danger, with a view to considering its deletion from the World Heritage List at its 44th session in 2020, if the Committee Decisions related to the adoption of the DSOCR and the moratorium for new buildings are not met.

Liverpool's World Heritage Site Status-In Ruins.

UNESCO have now decided that the city of Liverpool does not understand the concept of looking after its best asset, it's World Heritage Site. They meet this week to discuss whether Liverpool should be removed from the World Heritage list.

They have asked repeatedly that Liverpool provide them with provisions of how to manage its world heritage site.

No such undertakings have been received.

The United Nations cultural arm have expected a city that has a world heritage site would have people in place who would understand its cultural significance in terms of world importance and they would protect it against planning blight, and we get Joe Anderson, before him Mike Storey and in between the both of them Warren Bradley.

Unesco World Heritage Committee meet in Krakow high on the agenda is Liverpool.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/sessions/41com/

Liverpool To Lose UNESCO World Heritage Site Status In 2018. Its Official.

In view of the above analysis, it is recommended that the Committee expresses its deep concern that the projects already approved as well as those approved in outline have actual and potential highly adverse and irreversible impacts on the OUV of the property. 
Therefore, it is also recommended that the Committee retain the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger but consider its deletion from the World Heritage List at its 42nd session in 2018, if the State Party does not reverse course and stop the granting of planning permissions which have a negative impact on the OUV of the property, provide substantive commitments to limitation on the quantity, location and size of allowable built form, link the strategic city development vision to a regulatory planning document, and lastly provide a DSOCR and corrective measures that could be considered for adoption by the Committee.


Read it yourself here.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/soc/3519

I have been forced to watch as my cherished views have been destroyed by these consecutive city council leaders who seem blind to seeing what I used to be able to see, my history, my culture.

  Both pictures here are of the same view before and after note the cupola of the Port of Liverpool Building...now obscured.

For over ten years now I have been campaigning vigorously to stop the continual erosion of the majesty that once was Liverpool.

They have taken away my pride.

They have stolen it from me.

I have fought hard, really I have fought hard but the power that these people possess has surprised even me.

Civic vandalism is too tame a description of the sheer destruction of the soul of the city that in places has been stripped bare of all historic meaning.

Capital of Culture became Culture of Capital.

It was easy to pull the wool over the eyes of a lazy electorate.

Yes strong words but true.

Shame on all those who could see what was happening, but did nothing, often as with the guardians of our museums they had the brains........but were in on it. They destroyed Manchester Dock which pre-dated The Albert Dock by 60 years......to build a new museum.

The directors and curators busy making their names and furthering their own careers.
Yes you at Liverpool Museums you know who you are.

There were others who also had opinions. 

See Ptolemy Dean video describing on a programme entitled Britain's Vanishing Views.

I don't claim easily that the brain drain that happened in Liverpool in the 1960's has left us with a foolish breed of poorly educated architects without morals. But its true.

So what of these architects of disaster who sold themselves short for wages. Sold, well our soul really.

And of English Heritage whose ill conceived Chairmen such as Sir Neil Cossons and consecutive Chief Executives have to share most of the blame, allowing their operatives to be in on the deals.

I met with two Unesco reactive monitoring missions and asked Ron Van Oers of Unesco face to face, “Why did you allow them to destroy the Pier Head”

“With English Heritage supporting the developments there was nothing we could do”, was his reply.

Now we can't expect people from The United Nations to save a city from itself or understand the way Liverpool's forever corrupted regimes work the planning system.

Its really not their fault the blame lies elsewhere. 

You cant blame the barometer for the weather.

There are third world country World Heritage Sites to look after, surely they can't believe that a country such as the UK, as member of the G7 would behave like the Taliban in destroying its own heritage sites. 

Though instead of blowing them up with TNT they destroy them with planning blight.

Some historic buildings, listed, now look alien in their own environment because of what was allowed to be built around them.

Liverpool was placed on the Unesco 'World Heritage In Danger' List at the same World Heritage Committee meeting that saw Aleppo and the Palmyra Temple added, that was subsequently blown up by ISIS.

I feel like I have wasted so much time now, but for years I have been fighting for Liverpool's historic buildings, fighting against the odds, with planners, turning up to argue at planning committee meetings in my own time, those committees that had carefully politically placed members who had already taken the decision to pass the very plans that have now done the damage, thus denying me and other objectors, a democracy of fairness.

It's as if those with the power are walking round with welders goggles on, oblivious to the beauty that the forebears had left us, unable to see. Or are taking liberties for their own gain, they have just let it happen.

Frustration has become a way of life for me.

But now, Liverpool having been on the Unesco register for quite some time, it appears that we are at the last chance saloon, before we as a city, lose the title of World Heritage Site.

How can so many be let down by so few.

UPDATE 12.1.2022

LIVERPOOL HAS NOW LOST ITS WORLD HERITAGE SITE STATUS

THE MAYOR JOE ANDERSON AND OTHERS HAS BEEN ARRESTED ON FRAUD AND BRIBERY CHARGES AND ARE AWAITING CHARGE.

LIVERPOOL-THE CITY THAT GETS WORLD HERITAGE SITE STATUS AND THEN GIVES IT AWAY.

Liverpool Town Hall As A Giant Advertising Placard For Mobile Phones-How Tacky Is That?

It is with deep regret that my city council is being run by people who neither wish to or do indeed respect Liverpool's World Heritage Site.
It is hard to imagine at a time when Liverpool is on the Unesco "In Danger" List that this placement of an advertising hoarding on our Town Hall could be done.
Some time ago the Mayor Anderson helped me remove an advertisement for a giant advert for A Burger In A Bun next to the Listed Lyceum at the bottom of Bold Street.

I have today written to him asking how this unfortunate occasion has been sanctioned.

I wrote this for LPT at the time

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/lyceum-bold-street-whopper-job-well.html

Read the letter about illegal hoardings. click above 

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/lyceum-bold-street-liverpool-how-can.html

Mr Anderson,

It is very disappointing to note that Liverpool's town hall has been turned into a giant advertising placard for mobile phones.

I know you think that Liverpool's World Heritage Site status is no more than a plaque on the wall in the Town Hall and that the city is now about making money out of heritage sites, but this is a step too far.

You will recall agreeing with me that a advert for Burger King was inappropriate for the adjacent building to the Lyceum. You claimed to have it removed.

So how can you find this acceptable.

I am not aware of any planning applications for this event of placing a huge tacky advertisement in a WHS, which is also in a conservation area and on a listed building.

Would you please advise me of any planning applications that have been considered by the planning committee.

Would you also advise me who sanctioned this idea.

Also would you advise me how much is being paid by the advertisers.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Wayne Colquhoun.